Daily devotions for families with school-aged children

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A Scary Dream

“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze,its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:31-35 ESV

You keep him in perfect peacewhose mind is stayed on you,because he trusts in you.Trust in the Lord forever,for the LordGod is an everlasting rock.For he has humbledthe inhabitants of the height,the lofty city.He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,casts it to the dust. Isaiah 26:3-5 ESV

Joe loved to watch builders and construction equipment do their work. He had toy cranes and bulldozers and excavators and loaders to play with, but he enjoyed watching the real thing even more. One day he watched a large bulldozer demolish an old house in his neighborhood. He watched the wood splinter and the house collapse as the big machine plowed into the house again and again. That night Joe had a scary dream that a gigantic bulldozer was destroying his own house. His mother came into his room to reassure him that there was no bulldozer outside and that his house was safe. Joe’s mom told him the truth for the time being, but many years later, when their house would become very old, there might be a bulldozer to come and demolish it. Nothing that human beings build lasts forever.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was similar to Joe’s. He dreamed about a huge, glorious statue made of gold and silver and bronze and iron and a little bit of clay, and then about a huge stone that came and crushed this statue to pieces. The pieces became so small that the wind carried them away, while the stone grew so massive that it filled the earth. What was the statue? What was the stone? Nebuchadnezzar didn’t know, but he was sure that his dream was telling him that there were important things in this world that were not going to last, but would be destroyed, and that was a very scary thought for him.

It can be sad and frightening to know that the things we love and enjoy in this world are only going to be around for a while. Some things might last as long as we live, or even for a lot longer than that, but other things are destroyed or come to an end while we watch. Houses and buildings come down, people we love move away from us, children grow up, and everyone dies sooner or later. There’s nothing in this world that we can trust to last forever. But we do know something that will last forever, and that’s God’s love. He showed us his love in Jesus by coming into our broken and dying world and giving his life on the cross for us. Because of Jesus, we are God’s children forever, and we will live with him for always in his heavenly kingdom. Nations and kingdoms in this world all fall from power sooner or later, but the kingdom of God will never end.

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die for us so that we can know your love forever. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.